Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Sizes available: 2 quart

Basics: zones 2-6, 6-12" x 24"+, full sun to part sun into part shade, late spring bloom, little white urns (sometimes tinged pink)develop into red berries. reddish-bronze leaf color as season cools, likes good drainage and rocky and/or sandy acidic soils, adaptable to shallow and lean soils. High drought and cold tolerance. Do not fertilize this plant.

Common names: Bearberry, Kinnikinnick ("smoking mixture", derived from the Unami - eastern Algonquin - language), other regional names include: Mealberry, Sandberry, Mountain-box, Fox-plum, Hog-crawberry, Barren myrtle (from Wikipedia)

Family: Ericaceae

Origin/Distribution: Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is circumboreal to the subarctic northern hemisphere. According to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center the native range of this plant is "Northern, coastal, and montane Eurasia to northern, coastal, and montane North America." That includes Labrador west to Alaska, south to Virginia, northeastern Indiana, northern Illinois and California and further south to Arizona and New Mexico. There are also isolated populations in the mountainous regions of Guatemala. Bearberry is native to Maine.

Habitat: sandy, rocky, dry open woodlands, hills, and mountains

More: This is a tough, slow-growing evergreen shrub for places that other plants find challenging to grow in. With time it will form a beautiful, multi-branching, low-growing shape that although a shrub, acts like a ground cover in form and habit. Good for erosion control on slopes. It prefers to establish in looser soils, as the prostrate stems will easily layer into bare ground. So, if you are trying to get it going next to a big rock in former lawn, instead of a planting hole, dig out a good big patch of the grass around it and keep that weeded until it starts to establish. The berries are palatable to birds, small mammals, and, yes, bears. They have also been used cooked, dried, and fermented into a drink. Numerous medicinal uses are documented and the dried leaves have traditionally been used in smoking mixtures. A yellow dye can be extracted from Bearberry. The flowers are attractive to pollinating insects and hummingbirds. Larval host for the Hoary Elfin, Callophrys polia, and the Brown Elfin, Callophrys augustinus, both of which are native to Maine. Arctostaphylos is a combination of the Greek words arctos (bear) and staphyle, (bunch of grapes). Uva-ursi derives from the Latin ova (grape) and ursus (bear).  So, let's translate: "Bear grape grape bear". 

Nursery: Van Berkum

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons - flower, berry, in situ, fall color, diagram of growth habit